Star Tribune from Minneapolis, Minnesota • Page 13

Flight Shifts JOHN K. SHERMAN THE TRIBUNE OPEN FORUM Improvement in Boston Is Cited to Support Local City Planning to express themselves against Jews. I am a Scandinavian American and have noticed this tendency often in our gatherings. In my homeland I never heard as much anti-Semitism as I hear in this country. To my surprise it is nearly always the so-called well educated who indulges in this attitude.

We Americans should show more tolerance and kindness to all races. This war should certainly have taught us that. Minneapolis. Anna Lundstrum Johnson. To the Editor: Wrhy are so many people so concerned over what they call the racial problem? There is no such problem except that which is made by so much harping by uninformed people.

In a country where tree speech is freely practiced this subject is bound to come up. Since the average American loves an argument it is only natural that sides will be taken regardless of the actual grounds for argument. The subject of racial differences is likely to pop up at any time but if left alone it will be quite harmless. However, if it is probed and abused by unskilled hands it will develop into a festering sore that will, before it is brought under control, be painful and leave an unsightly scar. Minneapolis.

J. B. Russell. of Artists to U. S.

Cultural Center homage they exact from their disciples Is an almost religious one, in which no false gods of expediency or compromise are accepted. The artist and scholar are committed to their own ideals of art expression and of honest, unbiased research. Statism is opposed to individualism In any shape or form, regarding it as dangerously incompatible with the aims of rementation and conformity. Statism is opposed tfl any gods but its own. Then it was logical and inevitable that culture, along with church worship and the lives of racially "inferior" people, should fall under the gangster's whip.

THE DEPTHS TO WHICH German scholarship sank during the 30's is typified in one instance cited by Einstein. He says the theory was once seriously presented in one of the German musical journals that had composed his Fifth symphony for Hitler that he wrote it with the underlying idea of a coming German fuehrer in mind! The pantheon of German writers, artists and musicians of the past showed many empty niches after the Nazis rose to power. Mendelssohn and Heine, being Jews, were of course missing, and even the great Goethe because of his free-ranging and iconoclastic ideas was suspect. Only the fact that he was once guilty of some anti-Semitic statements kept him in good odor with the Nazis. Dr.

Einstein, now on the faculty of Smith college, does not expect to return to Europe, and he is still amazed and delighted, after several years' residence, by America's freedom of movement, the vast distances one may travel without being stopped at borders for questioning and passport inspection. After what he has been through, that kind of liberty still impresses him as one of the miracles of America. To the Editor: I hope loop development, as portrayed in the Sunday Tribune of May 20, will be carried out. I can offer good evidence of its practicality. Boston once faced exactly the same problem Minneapolis does today.

In my boyhood I played by Its Charles river, which was full of dead dogs, rotting wooden bridges and its banks were lined vith nlum areas. At low tide Jhe odors from the mudflats can be imagined. In 1907 I left Boston and didn't return until 30 years later. The changes amazed me. Behind a stone wall on the mudflats, but now "made land," rises the three blocks of the beautiful white stone Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The river had been dammed up to form a lagoon, which is now filled with pleasure yachts instead of dead cats. Instead of the ramshackle frame houses there are fine residential apartment houses in Georgian brick design. Once that location was dangerously near the slums, if not in them. Boston has done a turnabout. The lovely rural suburb of Brookline I once knew has lost its charm.

There is no greenery to be seen. Through city planning it is the slums of my childhood that today offers all the city vistas. We western cities have profited by eastern errors. But when they do a smart thing let's get smart with them. 'Minneapolis.

Robert Clement. A MAN WHO HAS SPENT much of his life collecting 16th century madrigals, who probably knows more about the life and works of Mozart than anyone else in the world today, was persona non grata in the late Adolf Hitler's realm, with the happy result that Americans now can claim him as a fellow-citizen. Dr. Alfred Einstein, far from doing any harm to the reich, was actually contributing to its cultural glory or what remained of it at the time he came to America in the late 30's. He ranked then, and does now, as one of the world's great music scholars.

We can thank Hitler for having had him here in Minneapolis as a guest lecturer last week, and for the privilege of regarding him henceforth as an American musicologist and one of the brightest adornments of the culture of the western world. TALKING WITH EINSTEIN at the University last week, I was struck anew by the insanity and brutal folly of a nation and leader that could have hounded into unwilling exile a man like this, who quietly tended the lamp of musical learning and added so much to our knowledge and enjoyment of music of the past. When the history of the period is finally and definitively written, it will doubtless be found that Adoif Hitler, more than anyone else, shifted the world's cultural center of gravity from Europe to the United States. One may wonder why culture, along with persons and nations, was maimed and murdered during the nightmare rule of the Nazis, until one analyzes the nature of culture and of men's concern with it. The arts and the scholarship associated with the arts are aspects of individualism, and the NEUROTIC HEADS is one of 40 woodcuts by Eugene Larkin, young Minneapolis artist, currently on exhibition at the Harriet Hanley gallery.

MUSIC, BOOKS ART iHmneapoIis tribune may 27. 1945 13 Protests State Spending To the Editor: While in Omaha recently I was reminded of the fact Nebraska has no state income tax and no sales tax. It seemed to me that Nebraskans enjoy the same privileges of good roads, good school, as Minnesotans. I came home and read in the Sunday Twin City papers about the serious threat to our state finances when the present high income level due to the war recedes, with the accompanying reduction in state income tax receipts and that either we would have to have a sales tax or an increase in the state income tax rate. What a pretty kettle of fish when the overburdened taxpayer has no check on the spending proclivities of our state legislators and officials! It seems to me that all efforts at tax reduction will avail little unless we can get a constitutional amendment similar to that of Nebraska which put a checkrein on the squanderbund.

We doled out S6 million alone for an approach to the state capitol under the subterfuge that it is a war memorial. After all, the people are the state and foot the bill. If we ran our private enterprises in such extravagant fashion they would adjudge us crazy and commit us to an institution. It is high time the citizens, especially the taxpayers, wake up and do something about it. Rochester, Minn.

George B. Eusterman. Prayers and War To the Editor: I was much interested in a letter (May 20), "Tribal God Idea Must Be Abolished." In 1914 I was serving with the United States army on the Mexican border. One evening just after war broke out in Europe a group of men were standing in a drugstore discussing the war. An old man about 75 said, "If every minister of the gospel in Germany and the whole of Europe would denounce the war, it could be stopped." At that time most of the people of Europe attended church, so the church had a powerful influence over the people.

From 1918 to 1921 I served in the army of occupation on the Rhine. Then the churches were nearly empty. What will be the situation after this war? While in the army and also in civilian life I have found that most of the men whom I have met believe in God and the teachings of Jesus. The way the Christian world is going, in 50 years there will be no churches, but the name of Jesus will never die as he was the greatest humanitarian the world has ever known. Mankato, Minn.

Paul C. RuntzeL To the Editor: We Christians do not believe in a "Tribal God" for God is no respecter of race. He honors and answers the sincere prayers of His people. Let us be grateful for a president who leads his nation in prayers of thanksgiving and prayers for victory. We fight and pray not to subjugate other nations or to be a superior people but to be free and live in peace.

Have you ever tried to visualize what it would mean to the world if every ruler of every country would lead his people in prayer for lasting peace? Minneapolis. Mrs. Lester L. Hughes. BOOK OF THE WEEK Story of Hank Martin, Who Lusted for Power By ROBERT W.

SMITH ONE OF THE MOST vivid novels so far this 'year is A LION IS IN THE STREET (Whittlesey House, $3) by Adria Locke Langley. It is the story of Hank Martin, peddler of "pins, pots n' potions" according to his enemies, but to the swamp folk of Magnolia state, a builder of dreams. Murphy Pictures Shown in Memorial Exhibit A memorial exhibit of the work of the late Lt. VinCent Murphy, Minneapolis artist who died of wounds Europe Feb. 2, will open Monday for a week's showing in the fine arts room of Coffman Memorial union on the University of Minnesota campus.

The exhibit is sponsored by Gamma chapter of Delta Phi Delta, honor art fraternity, and will comprise more than 30 oils and gouaches, as well a a ceramics group. Lt. Murphy was stdent instructor at the Stillwater Art colony and had worked on various WPA art projects. He was an art graduate at the University. Most of the pictures on exhibit were done at Ft.

Benning, where ho was with the visual aids division writing scripts for informational army movies. Richard Adams Plays at Choral Concert Richard Adams, talented young violinist, will assist the choir of Park Avenue Methodist church in its sixth annual spring concert at 8 p.m. today. The choir will sing excerpts from Mendelssohn's oratorio, "Elijah," with John Marshall Newton as baritone soloist. Harold Brundin will direct and Jean Brundin will be organ accompanist.

'Jewish Religion, But Not Race' To the Editor: I wish to comment on a letter of May 20 titled, "High Water Levelled Race -Problem." There never was a Jewish race. Judaism is a religion. A member of any racial stock or nationality may become a Jew. One may as seriously speak of a Catholic or Democratic race. The name Jew designating the Jewish people does not appear in scriptural or secular history until 1,200 years after Abram received the divine command.

Nowhere in the Bible are Abram or his people referred to as Jews, but always by the proper racial title as given in Genesis XIV, 15 -Abram the H-brew." The first time the word Jew is mentioned in the Bible is in II Kings, XVI, 6 where it tells how Rezin, king of Syria "drove the Jews from Elath." Reynolds, N. D. J. J. Mealy.

Alarmed by Gun-toting 'Organizers' To the Editor: I have been a lifelong resident of Minneapolis, proud of this beautiful city with its industrial and cultural advantages. Perhaps I have been too optimistic in hoping that this desirable combination would continue to make this city an ideal place in which to make an honest living and raise a family. In recent years there has come about a situation which has been a source of much unfavorable criticism. A sample- of that appeared in our Sunday Tribune (May 20) picturing two union organizers who had been arrested in St. Paul for carrying guns and creating a disturbance over there and were ordered to "slay in Minneapolis." We don't blame St.

Paul for not wanting such characters, but why do we have to harbor them in Minneapolis? Why should it be necessary for union organizers, so-called, to be carrying guns? Minneapolis. Mrs. J. S. Molstad.

More Thoughts on Race To the Editor: In reply to a letter (May 20) regarding anti-Semitism let me state that the Swedes as well as other Scandinavians are prone Show Business From the Inside: Two Life Stories By KENNETH CAR LEY TWO HEART-WARMING American success stories emerge from the autobiographies of two of show business' most beloved personalities Sophie Tucker and Fred -Stone. Neither Sophie in SOME OF THESE DAYS (Doubleday, Doran, nor Fred in ROLLING STONE (Whittlesey THE GALLUP POLL U. S. Public Overwhelmingly for Stern Course in Germany Aqua Music Contest Deadline Is July 9 Deadline for receiving appli cations in the 1945 Aquatennial music contests has been set for July 9, it was announced Saturday by Carlton Berg, music chairman. Entries should be mailed to 612 Builders' Exchange, Minneapolis.

Contests Mill be staged in male and female voices (ages 16 to 35), piano (14 to 18 and 19 to 26), accordion (12 years up), trombone, flat clarinet, flat cornet-trumpet, flat and flat saxophones (15 to 26) and accordion bands. Lists of required numbers to be sung or played are available on applica tion. All winners will appear in the Aquatennial's festival concert at the Minneapolis auditorium July 28, and on that occasion two singers, a man and a woman, and one cornet-trumpet player, will be selected by judges to be sent to Chicago to compete in the annual Chicagoland Music festival in August. FOR YOUNG READERS A new series of children's books on noted composers, written in anecdotal style and gayly illustrated in color, is initiated with publication of CHOPIN by George Ituttkay and MOZAKT by Waldo Mayo (Hyperion Press, $1.75 each). Wash drawings by Andre Dugo offer romanticized versions of episodes in the composers' careers, and their freshness and delicacy of hue are unusually well reproduced.

OTTO THE BEAVER, by Vera Reimuller (Ackerman, $1). This animal story tells what creatures of forest and stream think and say and do, and has true nature feeling. Illustrations by the author, in sepia tone, are accurate as to detail and highly decorative. WINTEIl ON THE PRAIRIE, by Alice B. Curtis (Crow ell, $2).

All about Gwen and Lynnie who lived on an Iowa farm 50 years ago, and their adventures when their grandfather in England sent them a hound dog and a cousin. Here is vivid description of rural life in the rugged 80's, and an exciting account of an Iowa blizzard. Ages 8-12. THE LAM) OF THE LOST, by Isabel Manning Ilewson (Whittlesey House, A fantastic story of marine life reminds one a bit of Kingsley's "The Water Babies," mixed up a bit with "Alice in Wonderland." In it Isabel and Billy find a weird kingdom under the sea, where all lost things eventually arrive. Colored illustrations by Olive Eailey match in imagination and humor the author's text.

TIME TO EAT, by Marion V. Rideway Marjorie Thompson (Howell, Soskin). For younger children, this little pull-out book shows how all the animals of farm and countryside eat, and what their favorite food is. Final page is devoted to baby in her highchair, who likes orange juice, cereal and milk. MacPhail Recitals MacPhail School of Music will present the following recital programs this week: Sunday, 3:30 p.m.

Voice pupl!" of Lorrn l.und. smiriav. S-15 om. Christine West, piano pupil of Edna Lund, and Norman Bohlcen, voice "pupil of Loren Lund. Sunday.

8 p.m. Violin graduation recital by Marilyn Incle, Mrs. J. RudolpU Petersua assisting. Monday, 8 p.m.

Voice and piano puplli of Mrs. Theodore iianschow. Thursday, 8:30 p.m. Concerto and operatic program. Friday.

8:15 p.m. Readings and plays by school pupils of Hazel Aamodt. Friday. 8:15 p.m. Piano recital by Nelson, pupil of Frances Kelly, at 5210 Belmont avenue.

Saturday, 4 p.m. Piano pupils of llrlxa Horde Anderson. Saturday. 7:30 p.m. Piano pupils of Charlotte Krimestad.

Manley Pupils Sing James and Sylva Manley of MacPhail School of Music will present pupils In song recital Monday at 8:30 p.m. In YWCA auditorium. RECORDED MUSIC The recording companies continue on their merry way of re-recording everything they've got in their catalogs on the one hand, and pouring out a flood of "pop" concert and New York hit tunes on the other. This week we give ear to another version of SYMPHONY NO. 4 IN MINOR (Brahms), as played by the Philadelphia orchestra under Eugene Ormandy (Columbia M-567, Granting that we hardly needed a new performance of something already well recorded, this interpretation has the advantage of excellent reproduction and solid if not unusually distinguished interpretation.

Th orchestra's colors and body of tone come through brilliantly, and the clarity with which Ormandy makes his points and stresses is welcome. He gives the work space and drama. Victor's Songs and Ballet Music from ON THE TOWN, the new Leonard Bernstein musical on Broadway (DM-995, 53.6S) gives almost a blow-by-blow account of the story of three sailors on leave in the big city, which Minneapolltans saw in the ballet version recently. Robert Shaw, young choral genius, is in charge of the chorus. The music is brittle, strident, Americanese.

J. K. S. germ" at an early age. When he was only 10 be became "Mile.

Amy d'Artego," high wire artist in a circus that traveled in Kansas and nearby states. Learning much about acrobatic dancing in western dime museums and medicine shows. Stone teamed up with Dave Montgomery in 1895, and for 22 years (until Montgomery's death) they stuck together in a highly successful partnership. "All this time," Stone writes, "the only contract we ever had between us was a handshake." Montgomery and Stone reached their greatest popularity in "The Wizard of Oz," which opened in Chicago in 1902, and in "The Red Mill," "The Old Town," "Chin Chin" and later musical hows all "as clean as a whistle." Stone's greatest role was the Scarecrow in "The Wizard of Oz," and it had its difficulties. One night he had to stand still for an agonizing seven minutes while a stray piece of straw from his costume tickled his nose and made him want to sneeze.

Stone had many interest-i. Among other things, his book tells how he hunted polar bears in Greenland and mountain Tions in Arizona, spun ropes with Will Rogers and sparred with Jim Corbet t. "The world has been good to me. I have been a happy man," is the tagline of Stone's book. All of JLs 246 pages attest to that.

Philharmonic Program Artur Rubinstein, pianist, will be soloist at the broadcast of New York Philharmonic Symphony at 2 p.m. today over WCCO. Bruno Walter is guest conductor. Symphony No. 4 In flat major Btho I'lnno Concerto No.

4 In major Brrlhnvm 6 WEEKS SUMMER COURSE BEGINS JULY 2 F.10RSZTYN Famous Pianlst-Tachr Vthelwynn Klnrvhary mmmmm 1212 lc I'Ucc. M1. (4), Minn, mmm EVERYBODY'S READING: (Brat Srller In Minneapolis) FICTION A LION IS IN THE STREETS, by Adria Locke Langley. COMMODORE IIORNBLOW-ER, by C. S.

Forester. THE WIDE HOUSE, by Taylor Caldwell. CAPTAIN FROM CASTILE, by Samuel Shellabarger. NONFICTION BRAVE MEN, by Ernie Pyle. PINE, STREAM AND PRAIRIE, by James Gray.

TRY AND STOP ME, by Bennett Cerf. THE MIDDLE SPAN, by George Santayana. of the American people when he declared, "The government we will set up will be a military government, and the Germans will know it as a military government. We are going to follow a firm and realistic policy." U' Recitals The following senior recitals will be given at the University music auditorium this week: Monday. 8:30 p.m.

Ralph Kndish. pianist. Tuesday. 8:30 p.m. Constance Dose, 10-prano Friday.

8:30 p.m. Iori Ntn, pianist. Hank is a magnificent ex ample of a rebellious, underprivileged child growing and pushing to the top of the heap, regardless. His faith in himself and his ultimate success, his conviction that he could do anything was so contagious through his raw vigor and picturesque eloquence that the slack, illiterate swamp people were stirred into activity in his behalf, inflamed with a dream of the good things to come described by Hank, "the most de-scribin' man in the world." Hank was a man of action, too. When he said he was going to do something, he did it.

"There were people in this state who declared that if Hank Martin said he was going: to move the river, it would not occur to them to doubt it: they would not ask why, nor how, nor when. They vvonid only ask 'Where do you suppose Hank will put the river? The story begins with Hank's assassination, and unfolds by means of a flashback technique. Not until the final chapter is Hank's assassin identified. We learn to know Hank through his wife, Verity. From the moment they fall in love at first sight to his inevitable death, it is almost as much her story as his.

Early in the book one is convinced the story was at least partially inspired by the late Huey Long, but the narrative itself is so absorbing and so well written, the characters so independently well drawn, that it won't make much difference where the author got her idea. Hank spins such wonderful dreams for his poor followers that they pave the way for him with their very life's blood, and gladly. All things are stepping stones for Hank. Even when Verity remonstrates with him, some chance word of hers invariably turns out to be the key to the solution of his latest difficulty. So away he goes, lusty, hearty, unabashed, praising his "Sweetface" for her astuteness.

Ifank was as unsurpassed as a lover as he was in everything else. He could instantly transform almost any situation into a prelude to passionate, devouring love-making. Through her senses, I lank routed Verity's growing doubts and objections to his unscrupulous lust for power. As the story progresses, picturing Hank's connections, obligations, promises and power growing by leaps and bounds, and the testing and weighing of Verity's love, one gets the feeling that- perhaps the book is meant to sound a warning. It shows the human and under standable side of seemingly remote great leaders and powerful politicians shows how the Judas in all of us grows strong and bold with so much power.

Carried along as he was by great talents and gifts, intoxicated by success, it is not hard to realize how the hatred and injustice Hank early felt at the exploitation of the poor by the rich was soon forgotten in his own acquisition of power and money. Understandable, too, is his own subsequent Indifference to his worshipful followers. ART IN REVIEW EUGENE LARKIN'S woodcuts at Harriet Hanley gallery are the work of an original mind and skillful hand, both at the service of a natural feeling for the material and means he uses. This combination produces a freshness and simplicity quite refreshing to the observer, for you feel the artist is imitating no one and following his own instinct in unconventional effective ways. Thus he often allows the grain of the wood to contribute to his design, and does such things as printing a cut on newsprint where the type makes an interesting texture.

Textures are one of Larkin's concerns, both in tihe cuts themselves (some of them in end grain to show circular grain) and in varieties of paper used. Themes are such things as informal portraits, corn cutters, fish, tree patterns. In all of them Larkin makes much of little, sometimes makes little of little, so that the impression in a few prints is one of triviality nJ a mere flick of offhand skill hardly worth preserving. But throughout there is a strong sense of pattern and a welcome lack of academic banalities. He has a definite gift in black and white art, and so far, at 23, has fallen into no ruts.

Maybe, if he is smart, he won't fall into any. J. K. S. E.

B. White Receives Club Medal for Book NEW YORK The Limited Editions club last week announced the award of the fourth of its gold medals, this one going to E. B. W'hite for writing "One Man's Meat." The award, made periodically by the club to that American author who, in the preceding three years, shall have published the book considered "most likely to attain the stature of a classic," was made by a committee of three Robert van Gelder, A. C.

Spectorsky and Joseph Henry Jackson who based their selection upon nominations received from 50 newspaper and magazine critic's in all sections of the country. Leading titles nominated by critics were: "A Bell for Adano," by Jolm Hersey, Men" by Ernie Pyle, "Lee's Lieutenants" by Douglas Southall Freeman, "One Man's Meat" by E. B. White, "Samuel Johnson" by Joseph Wood Krutch, "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" by Betty Smith, "The World of Washington Irving" by Van Wyck Brooks. Holy Trinity Episcopal Stages Music Festival A music festival at 5:30 p.m.

today in Holy Trinity Episcopal church will signalize the 95th anniversary of the church's founding. The program will be presented by the church choir under Stanley R. Avery, assisted by the choir of First Congregational church directed by Edward Berryman. Prelude and post-lude will be played respectively by Patricia Meile, Holy Trinity organist, and Mr. Berryman, First Congregational organist.

iiuutc, ipoi, raaKcs any pre tense of literary style; but both set down straightforwardly the stories of their ascent to fame and fortune, punctuating the accounts with a host of famous names and interesting anecdotes. The result is better-than-average books about show business "greats" books that will evoke pleasant memories among theatergoers over 40 and make some younger readers sorry they missed out on the "good old days" of the theater. Sophie Tucker, "Last of the Ked Hot Mammas," was born Sophie Abuza, daughter of Russian Jewish refugees, in a farmhouse alongside a road "leading out of Russia." The family made its way to America, and Sophie, big and blond, began singing in her father's restaurant in Hartford, when she was only 13. At 16, Sophie got her first professional singing' job in a New York beer garden. She adopted the name "Tucker" (after her first husband, Louis Tuck) and became a blackfaced "coon shouter" in small-time vaudeville.

Sophie's big chance came in the 1909 Ziegfeld Follies, but when she stopped the show during tryouts, she lost her job because Nora Bayes, the star, considered her too stiff competition. Despite this setback she soon made the grade in big-time vaudeville, rising to headline engagements in America and Europe. Vaudeville was her forte. Big-voiced and given to wearing gaudy gowns, Sophie coined big money putting over such songs as "My Yiddisha "Some of These Days" and many "less delicate" numbers. Good-natured and sometimes frank to the point of vulgarity, her book is more than a lively account of Sophie Tucker's career and three marriages.

It is also the story of the rise and fall of vaudeville. I'rcd Stone also "got the show PRINCETON, N. J. HOWEVER Allied leaders work out the final details of handling Germany now that the war is over, one thing is certain the American people want no leniency in the treatment of the reich. The brutal killing of Allied war prisoners by the Germans during the "battle of the bulge," the documented prison camp atrocities, the savage buzz bombings all of these have contributed to an extremely stern attitude in this country toward Germany as a nation.

Back In 1943, a nation-wide survey showed 17 per cent suggested lenient treatment for Germany once she was defeated. Today, fewer than one in 10 approve any plan which might be classified as lenient treatment. Eight out of every 10 questioned want to see a close system of supervision and control, or very severe treatment of Germany by "splitting up the country into smaller states, destroying her, crippling her." Field reporters asked this question: "What do you think we should da with Germany as country?" The findings: 1943 Today Be lenient 17 Supervise and control 44 46 Treat very severely. 21 34 Miscellaneous and undecided 18 12 Lt. Gen.

Lucius Clay, Gen. Eisenhower's deputy military 1 governor, voiced the sentiments Andor Foldes. Pianist, Engaged by MacPhail Andor noted Hungarian pianist and teacher, will be at the MacPhail School of Music for one week as guest teacher, beginning June 17. On that day he will give a program in the MacPhail school auditorium. "HEY, SOLDIER! YOUR SLIP IS SHOWING!" WINNIE THE WAC, which relates in picture form the adventures and misadventures of his khaki-clad heroine.

Published by McKay. 0m.